Memphis Championship Barbecue founder became The Legend

Not many people become known as The Legend in their chosen field, but the label fit Mike Mills like a well-worn barbecue mitt. He earned it one rib at a time, bringing his love of artfully smoked meats to pitmasters and backyard smokers across the country.

Mills, whose now-closed Memphis Championship Barbecues became landmarks in Southern Nevada, died Tuesday in Murphysboro, Illinois. A statement from his daughter, Amy, said he died of “non-COVID-related health issues” and did not disclose his age.

It is, as Amy Mills said, a great loss for the barbecue community.

“Mike, I would have to say, was the ambassador for making barbecue mainstream and cool in this country,” said Steve Overlay, owner of Sin City Smokers in Henderson.

Mill’s legendary status, Overlay said, stemmed from his winning the Grand World Championship at the prestigious Memphis in May competition three times in five years in the early ’90s.

“The next person to do that was (celebrity barbecue chef) Myron Mixon, but it took him 19 years to do it,” Overlay said.

Mills also was the 1992 Grand Champion of the Jack Daniel’s World Invitational Barbecue Cooking Contest and won the 2006 National Barbecue Association Award of Excellence, the 2008 Pioneer of Barbecue award at the Jack Daniel’s World Invitational Barbecue Cooking Contest and was inducted into the Barbecue Hall of Fame in 2010. “Peace, Love and Barbecue,” a book he wrote with his daughter, was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award in 2006.

To Overlay, who worked for him for 13 years starting in late 1999, Mills was a friend and mentor. Overlay started at the restaurant on Warm Springs Boulevard and opened places for Mills at Santa Fe Station, on Rainbow Boulevard and in Carbondale, Illinois, before being named executive pitmaster in charge of what then were four restaurants in Southern Nevada.

“I had the privilege and pleasure to travel with him all around the country,” Overlay said. “The rib cookoff in Reno, one in Aspen, the Carolinas, Texas, Mississippi and all the different places, and meet some of the greats and go to the great barbecue places just because of my relationship with him.”

Along the way, Mills caught the attention of some high-profile people connected to the hospitality industry, including restaurant mogul Danny Meyer. In the forward to Mills’ book, Meyer recalls the first time he tasted Mills’ baby backs as a “barbecue epiphany” that, with Mills advising his team, led to him opening Blue Smoke in New York City in 2002.

“Behind this man whose touch with pork was so heavenly was a human being with a heart the size of a ham,” Meyer wrote. “Mike is my favorite kind of cook: He has dedicated himself to a journey of excellence for the sole purpose of delighting others.”

“Everyone he met was a friend,” Overlay said. “He’d give you help and advice and the shirt off his back. He saw the good in everyone. He loved barbecue, not just as a food or sport but as a way of life, a lifestyle. There’s not enough good you can say about Mike. He was truly a Southern gentleman.”

Mills also became acquainted with Jeffrey Steingarten, who writes widely about food and has been a judge on “Iron Chef America.” In his book, Mills said Steingarten — who has been food critic at Vogue magazine since 1989 — in the December 1993 issue called ribs from Mills’ 17th Street Bar & Grill one of the top 10 food gifts to send for the holidays.

“I wasn’t exactly set up for mail order,” Mills wrote, “and I had no idea that the article was being published. Suddenly, the phone started ringing off the hook, and we scrambled for the entire month of December to fill the orders.”

“He came from humble beginnings,” Overlay said, “doing what he loved, and turned it into a national endeavor. This guy who came from a small town took the barbecue world by storm.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t think of something he taught me. I probably wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today if I hadn’t met Mike. When I met Mike, barbecue became my passion.”

Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at Hrinella@reviewjournal.com. Follow @HKRinella on Twitter.